I Wanna Be in the Club Business

Sat, 2008-04-19 18:48

Sometimes when I go to a trade show and sit in on sessions, the speakers and sessions are so good that I find myself wanting to chuck all my years of journalism school and trade magazine experience to open my own club or become a personal trainer. That's the way it was with this morning's session, "Getting Your Personal Training Business to Become an Integral Revenue Generator" by Kelli Calabrese of Calabrese Consulting.

The great thing about Kelli was that she actually offers real ideas. Even though she's a consultant, she didn't hesitate to offer almost 20 ideas on how to reach out to get new personal training clients (from doing boot camps to peforming supermarket tours to offering online training for people who can't afford in-person personal training--although you need to be able to meet with them in person on occasion).

Kelli emphasized something that I think a lot of club owners and personal trainers forget. The personal training service you provide your members is just as valuable (if not more so) as a visit to their doctor, their hair dresser and their auto mechanic. None of those professionals would ever offer one visit, one haircut or one transmission job for free in hopes of luring you back for another one later. So why do club owners and personal training directors devalue personal training sessions by offering the first one for free? Good question, and no one in the room had a good answer. Including me. --Pam